UPCOMING EVENTS

The best Overwatch players from around the world will have another chance to shine on Blizzard’s biggest stage.

The developer announced today that the Overwatch World Cup tournament will return in 2017. It will feature teams from the 32 most skilled countries in a tournament that will culminate at BlizzCon 2017. Overwatch launched last year and has become a big hit, partly thanks to its popularity in the competitive gaming world. It has over 25 million players across all its platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One (the tournament will use the PC versions). South Korea won last year’s tournament. Blizzard does not share the viewership numbers for BlizzCon or its tournaments.

“Starting today, we will begin tracking the skill ratings of the top 100 players from every country to determine each country’s average rating,” Blizzard details on its blog. “Then, in April, we’ll use those average ratings to identify which 32 countries from around the world have the most skilled players. These countries will move on to our live qualifiers where they will battle in groups of eight for a chance to compete on the BlizzCon 2017 stage.”

BlizzCon 2017 takes place on November 3 and November 4 in Anaheim. You can check the current rankings for countries here.

Four group stage events across North America, Europe and Asia will feature week-long competition between eight of the 32 teams. The top two finishers from each event will qualify for the Overwatch World Cup finals at BlizzCon 2017.